Waivers Reveal Broken NEPA

Congress repeatedly waives or streamlines National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews when a project is deemed urgent, which the authors say is an implicit admission that the underlying permitting process is dysfunctional and needs structural reform rather than ad‑hoc exceptions. The piece supplies litigation figures (e.g., 37% of NEPA suits target public land projects; agency win rates ~79%) to show waivers replace systemic fixes with case‑by‑case carveouts. — If true, the practice of waiving NEPA when expediency is needed reframes permitting reform from a niche environmental technicality to a central industrial‑strategy and governance priority.